1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image process for a three-dimensional model, and in particular to an image process apparatus relating to a three-dimensional model of a gap space inside of a product.
2. Description of the Related Art
Ever increasing demand is a light weight and compact product for small electronic equipments including lap top personal computers (PC), personal digital assistants (PDA), portable phones, portable music players, et cetera. The product designs of these electronic equipments are carried out by computer aided designs (CAD). A high density mounting of component is a compulsory requirement for making a product compact, which accordingly requires a minimization of a gap in the inside of the product.
A conventional technique for visualizing a gap inside of a product is a method for displaying a cross-sectional image of a three-dimensional (simply “3D” hereinafter) model. And a technique for measuring a gap volume of the inside of a product is a mechanical 3D CAD comprising such a measurement function. The 3D CAD, comprising a product sum arithmetic operation function of a 3D model, is capable of calculating a volume of a gap space of the inside of a product by subtracting the volumes of all components from the volume of the entirety of the product.
Incidentally, techniques related to the present invention include an apparatus (refer to a Japanese registered patent No. 3265879) generating 3D grid data by using voxel data and a method (refer to a Laid-Open Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2000-24754) for determining a casting dimensional model by comprehending an initial cross-sectional model possessing a substance area and a gap area in a solid layout model. And a known method for a high speed generation of a 3D model using voxel data is a Marching Cubes method (refer to U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,885,688 and 4,710,876).
The above noted display method for a cross-sectional image of a 3D model has only been capable of visualizing a gap in two-dimension, thus making it difficult to comprehend a gap inside of a product correctly. A volume calculation of a gap space by the above noted 3D CAD requires a generation of a model of the entirety of a product, causing a large load of the generation work and needing to spend a large number of work hours. Mean while, the 3D CAD has been faced with a need of a tremendous length of time for a volume calculation of gap spaces because of expressing a 3D feature by a solid model.